Hope Is Never Dead
by PrimRueMellark
Summary: Life for an average teenage girl is all about boys and texting. Not for Emilee it is about surviving on a daily bases, killing walkers along the way. She is on the verge of trying to find the rest of her family, until she finds a prison and a cowboy hat. I DO Not Own Anything Besides Original Characters and the plot line. It is a CarlxOC fanfic. Rated T for Zombie Killing!:)
1. Chapter 1

Hope, it's always there; now it's never here. Death is floating through the air; you will always see it every day in this world. For 13 year old Emilee death has been on her door step three times already. It has taken her Mother, Father, and Brother. Their camp was overrun by crawlers 5 weeks ago. She was separated from the rest of her family, her loving aunt and uncle and cousins are all she has left. Even though they still could be alive today, the hope in this world was taken by death. She has been living in the woods of Georgia since the separation, eating off of nature itself, berries and edible leaves even though they are very scarce. The best she had was when she encountered a man and his son in a suburban neighborhood a couple weeks ago where they had real food and shelter.

Even though a couple days in with them a gang followed the father home from a run and attacked them and killed the man and the boy. She was lucky enough they didn't look under the sink where she crammed herself in. since then she hasn't even looked for any safe place in neighbor hoods; she suggested nature was her best. All she had were the clothes on her back and a small orange backpack, with a photo album, a water bottle half-filled, and a couple of arrows and two more pairs of clothing. Before the outbreak began Emilee, considered teen-state champion in archery she was always a pure champion. Emilee would have no trouble hunting down squirrels or birds but the problem is she is a vegetarian, even though the world she lives in now is the survival of the fittest, she grew up without eating meat and would certainly not start now.

Currently she has a small shelter in an old oak tree, about a good ten feet off the ground; she had an old tarp as a roof that she found at an old beat up camp site. She considered that she start moving cause she believed that the longer she stays in one place on the great outdoors the quicker the crawlers would catch her scent and she couldn't risk that. Emilee only wished she had someone to talk to, she hasn't spoken with anyone sense the attack, it was so long ago, she forgotten what talking is like, Em would never dare speak aloud, with the woods crawling with crawlers. The girl reached into her pack and grabbed the green bottle with a half a cup of water in there; she desperately needed water, so she gathered her made-shift camp and started hiking. She was really in to nature before the end of the world; she gathered all her survival techniques from her dad who also spent his childhood in the woods. Once she reached a nice moist ground, she felt around on the ground and was testing to see where the moistest area was, because it means a water source would be close by. She started walking in what she decided was east, sometimes Emilee enjoys turning off her brain and dreaming.

"_Anthony, no please no!" Emilee screamed as she ran around her back yard as her twin brother chased her with a worm. The little girl around seven year's old found safety behind her mother who was setting the table. "Anthony Aidan Stryder" she said in her sing song voice, as she scoped him up in his arms and settled him on her lap, as he tried to restrain himself from her grasped, "You know your sister has a you know phobia to worms" she whispered in his ear. His sister grinned at him as she took a sip from her lemonade. "Well, that's weird because she is a worm" he smiled at himself, "Yeah that's so true" Emilee sarcastically says. "Ok we have three burgers and a fruit salad with a bread stick." Their dad says as he handed out everyone's plates. "Ok before we eat we have some special gifts to celebrate a couple of Birthdays." She says as she claps her hands and gets up from the table and grabs a small yellow bag with purple wrapping paper sticking out from the top." For Anthony" my father says as he puts his hands on my brother's shoulders. Anthony is obsessed with receiving gifts; he rips his favorite color paper from the bag and pulls out a brand new Nintendo DS Lite. He never said a word as he ran inside, and through the kitchen window the rest of the family could see the eight year old boy plugged it into an out let in the kitchen. The rest of the family laughed, at the silly boy. "Alright now for the birthday girl" my father said as he pulled his old hunting bow from under the table with a huge red ribbon on it. The little girls face broke into a huge smile, she always practically begged him for it when he took her hunting. Now it was all hers. The little girl smiled at the oversized bow in her hand._

Emilee looked down at the bow in her hand and smiled to herself. She has been walking in the same path for hours, so she decided to set up her camp, maybe tomorrow she will have luck in finding water. She continued walking eyeing the sky looking for a tree with a good branch that could support her. She was gazing up high until she heard a snarl, she turned around as a man with a dented skull and rotted face with most of its jaws rotted away, it's missing an arm, and the rest of the crawlers body is rotted everywhere on its body. She didn't hesitate as the girl flung an arrow into the skull of the corpses. She hit it dead on in the left eye. She carefully walked over looking to see if it brought any of his friends to dinner. She placed her boot on the skull, so she could pull the gutted arrow out. She sighed as she cleaned it off on the crawlers destroyed clothing and slipped back into position. She started walking again until she found a perfect tree tons of large branches that could support her. She slung her bow on her back and placed her feet into position. The 13 year old girl climbed until she reached a high enough branch, she sat down and grabbed her rope out of her back pack and threw it down under the tree branch and tied it around her waist so she won't fall. She placed the tarp over her for protection so she could drift off to sleep. The only problem was, is that her mind kept slipping to her family.

Carl was in his cell block staring up at the bottom of the top bunk. He didn't understand why humans were against humans, why did they have to fight with each other, the more they fight the more they kill each other, and we go into extinction. Why could we just band together and kill some walkers. It would be better for everyone. AS the boy continued to think about what the world would be like if we all just got along, he was snapped out of his thoughts of crutches clunking the way to his cell door. "Carl?" the old man asks as he limps over to sit on his bunk. "You know your father; he will come around after he cools down" the boy just stared down at his hands not saying a word. "Your mother, she was…" he tried to talk until he was interrupted. "Don't, can just be left alone please." The old man just sighed as he got up and started for the door. "Thank you Hershel for everything" The called out after him. The man just simply nodded and continued forward. The boy lay back down and closed his eyes, as he let out a large sigh.

As the sun rose the next morning for Emilee she didn't hesitate to start up packing her camp and start finding that source of water. She took out her small piece of plastic with some edible blue berries, she also picked up some mint leaves to suck on as she walked. As she urged on forward into the daylight she eventually found the stream. She was overjoyed as she got on her hands and knees and just gulfed down the water, she filled up her to water bottles. Emilee thought on how lucky she was to make it this far in this world. She started on walking in the creek, as she splashed the water with her feet as she just walked along, as she was walking she heard grunts and snarls Em turned around and saw at least 20 crawlers at least 10 feet behind her. She only had 12 arrows so she just started running. As she was running for her life she made a sharp left into an opening in the trees, she saw a huge fence surrounding what seems to be a prison, she must have hope. She suddenly felt a hand on her back she turned around meeting a molded face where it skin seems to be all molded off. She screamed which will probably attract more, damn! She wacked it in the face with her bow, as she fell backwards. She started running toward the prison screaming at the top of her lungs. Why was she screaming? She couldn't conclude it. All she knew was that the prison on the horizon was her safe place calling for her.

Carl and Beth were out in the court yard taking his new sister for a walk. They haven't come up with a name yet but they probably will when his dad cools down. "Carl, you sure you don't want to hold her?" Beth asked him. "No, I know you want to" He replied secretly he didn't want to hold her, 'cause she is the reason his mother is dead, but he really blames Shane he's the one got her pregnant. But he will always protect his baby sister. Always. They were silent for a while until they heard a piercing scream. "What was that" Beth asked. "Sounds like a girl" he replied loading his gun and heading out toward the gate. "Carl wait" Beth said calling after her. "No go get Glenn or Daryl!" He shouted back. He reached the gate when Glenn came busting out the door followed by Daryl. They literally sprinted toward the gate." What 'ell is that god all full noise" Daryl said as he reached the gate. "I don't know though, but open the gate." Carl told Glenn. When the Gate was open Daryl and Carl took off toward the woods.

Emilee kept running and letting out a scream once and awhile. She kept running until she tripped over a tree root and a crawler jumped on her. She tried to hold it off her when it just kept snapping its mouth inches from her face. The girl kept screaming bloody murder. She didn't know what death would be like, would it be liquid limbs or would she just fall into darkness and not know what is happening or not be able to process thoughts any more. She knew she was about to die even though hope would never come to her rescue. She was wrong. BANG! The crawler's bloody body fell on top of her. What just happened ran through the girls mind as she pushed the limp body off of her. "Are you bit, didn't scratch you." Said a young voice emerging behind a tree. She got up and grabbed her bow and looked around, "Hello" she said weakly, she was traumatized as she just experienced death in front of her eyes. "Are you ok" She turned around facing a boy not older than the girl, with a cow boy hat covering his beautiful blue eyes. "Yeah".


	2. Chapter 2

"Yeah" Emilee's crackled voice said to mysterious boy. The boy just stood there not sure of what to do next, after of a long period of silence, a man which Emilee has never seen before appeared, he was covered in grime and dirt, disgusting although everyone was these days, she probably didn't look any better. He carried a cross bow, which was now aimed at the girl. He saw that she didn't look like a threat so he caustically put the bow down. "Who's this" He asked the boy. "I don't know" he replied, he started walking over to her while asking, "What's your name" "Emilee" she replied as she looked down at her feet, to the corpse that lay there. "What?" asked the man, he sounded like an obvious redneck to the girl, "Emilee Stryder" she said just loud enough in her cracked up voice. "Who else are you with" The boy in the cowboy hat said, Emilee didn't know who these people are or what they wanted with her. They did save her but what if they did that so they could rob her of all her supplies, which wasn't much. She tossed that thought out of her head, because they could have let that crawler kill her. After a period of time of acting oblivious to the scene she replied, "No one. There dead, and the others I were with… I was separated." She replied hesitantly. "How far was it until you were separated? We can help you find them, Daryl here is a tracker" The young boy pointed at the man he referred as Daryl. "You probably won't want to search my trail, the separation was five weeks ago" Emilee said, the boy noticed something on her face, tears. "Wow little thing like you surviving these woods that long, must have some skill" Daryl said, she took that as a complement. "Should we take her back with us?" the blue eyed boy asked the redneck. "She the 'ell looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly, we'll besides one of those geeks." He told the boy. "Alright." The boy replied. He walked over her and lifted up her bag from the ground and handed it to her. All the girl could do was nod in reply. She stayed little back until, they noticed they were leaving "You coming?" Daryl shouted. Emilee looked up and jogged swiftly behind to catch up. The walk was not that long, they came upon the prison, that she had scene when she was being chased. Hope really didn't die, she thought as they came upon the gates. She saw an Asian boy open the gates; he seemed shocked to see her. "Who is that" he asked as he locked them behind her. "Emilee, she been on her own for five weeks." The one in hat replied. "Wow." Was all he could say, "How old are you, how did you survive that long, what happened to your group?" The girl became over whelmed with all his questions, she didn't like that her had started spinning. And everything went black.

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Wow, she must not be a people person, Carl thought as he helped Daryl bring her to her feet. "Great, thanks to you we got to carry her all the way back" Daryl grunted as Carl and Glenn grinned at each other. He decided to help as Glenn picked her up, so he picked up her bag, sheath of arrows and bow. He felt the weight of the bag on his back, there was barely anything in it, one thought ran through his head as he trudged up the path to the prison, how did she survive?

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"_Emilee!" Her mother shouted as they ran toward their car. The girl around 12 was putting her photo album in her bag, apparently the news media said that the dead have started to rise, and eating people! Her mother wanted to be with the rest of our family so we could be together at the end of the world. They would be heading for a safe place in Atlanta, which was instructed by the Government apparently. "Emilee!" Her mother shouted again, and before she could realize she was in her room scoping her up and carrying her toward their car. Little did that girl know is that her mother wouldn't be making it to Atlanta, nobody was, this was the beginning of the end for everyone._

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Carl entered the cell block while Daryl yelled for Hershel, He and Maggie appeared out of a cell, "Oh my god" Maggie said as she gestured to the limp girl in Glenn's arms. "I need towels and water" Hershel said as he clunked his way to his cell block, Glenn laid Emilee down on the bed as Carl just stared at her amazed by her way of surviving so long in this world, he just stared at her amazed at the girl. Everyone gathered in the cell block looking at the young girl, "Oh my, who is she' Carol said as she hurried over to Hershel's side to assist him. "We found her being attacked by a walker, been alone surviving off the woods for weeks" Glenn said as Beth and the two surviving prisoners entered the cell. "Is she ok" Beth asked in her worried tone. "She'll be fine, just passed out of dehydration and nutrient issues, she'll need some rest but someone keep an eye on her pulse in case it goes down, howler to me." The old man told the waiting crowd, "Right now will give her some space, 'because she passed out when I started to ask her a bunch of questions, I don't think she will like waking up to a bunch of strangers staring at her." Glenn said as he ushered some of the group out of the cell. Carl was still dumbly staring at the sleeping girl, Beth seemed to notice, "Carl!" She snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Uh I'll watch her" he said as he sat down feeling the girl's limped wrist in his hand. Beth just stared at him, and walked away thinking, what is with him. After hours of staring at the girl Carl felt her pulse speed up, he looked at the girl whose face was scrunched up, Carl just sat not knowing what to do, while he sat there the girl let out a terrifying scream as she lurched of the bed and fell on top of Carl. When she sat up and saw what happened she screamed again and scurried back on to the bunk, Carl believed that she had a terrific nightmare. Every one suddenly appeared in the gateway of the cell, "She, she had a nightmare, her pulse sped up" Carl said as Hershel went toward the girl. "Are you ok" He asked gently as he took wrist and felt her pulse. "Nightmare" her cracked voice whispered. "Want to talk about" Carol suggested as she sat down next to Emilee shivered in fear. The girl didn't reply as she looked at everyone in the room. "Let's give her some space to settle down" Hershel said as he followed everyone at. "Wait" Emilee said as she sat up a little more on the bunk. "Stay please" She said cracked up as she pointed to Carl. He nodded as Glenn looked at him with a stupid grin plastered on his face; Carl shrugged as Beth glared at the shivering girl on the bed. "I'm Carl by the way, Carl Grimes" he said as he sat down next to Em on the bed. She nodded and whispered, "Thank you" the boy nodded toward her, as she smiled. They sat there for a while, until he felt weight lifting of his head, Emilee took his father's hat and put it on her own head as she placed a grin on her dirty face. "Oh know you make a move" says the boy as he tries to reach. The girl laughed as she dogged his hand, "You don't talk much do you" he said as he gave up on reaching toward his hat. Emilee shrugged as she looked toward her hands, he noticed as she didn't like for him to mention her lack of speech in front of people she barely knows. "You know you look good in that hat" he told her, she gave him a wide smile in reply as a thank you. As well she put his father's hat back on his head. "My father gave that to me after I got shot" The girls eyes widen as he mentioned himself getting shot. "He gave that to me saying I was part of the club, he was shot on duty" The girl listened to him as he explained his father's amazing story of his father's entrance into this world. The girl believed that hope was really on his side. "Of course everything is different now, he doesn't seem to want anything with family now, ever sense he killed his best friend, he went cold, more insane after my mother died "The girl didn't know what to say, the boy told her the story of Atlanta, on how were all infected with this dieses, the farm and the harsh winter, he even explained what it felt like to him during the last few moments with his mother. The girl put her hand on his shoulder in sympathy, "I'm so sorry" she told him while tearing up. Those were the first non-cracked words she ever said.


End file.
